1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens unit which can perform flash control over a strobe, a camera body detachable from the lens unit, a camera device comprising the lens unit and the camera body, and an imaging method using such a camera device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A type of camera device such as a digital camera incorporating a strobe or to which an external strobe is attached is well known. In case of a camera device comprising an interchangeable lens unit, the optimal property of the strobe for photographing differs depending on a combination of a lens unit used and an image sensor contained in the camera body. It is extremely difficult to incorporate a strobe or attach an external strobe suitable for all the lens units in/to the camera device.
In view of solving the above, Japanese Patent No. 3945052 (Reference 1) discloses an interchangeable lens unit type digital camera having a lens unit incorporating a strobe, and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-142831 (Reference 2) discloses a strobe unit of a digital camera configured to be replaceable with ones different properties.
In the digital camera disclosed in Reference 1, a strobe device can be selectively attached to each lens unit in accordance with a property of the lens unit. However, provision of a strobe device for each lens unit may increase the size and manufacture costs of the lens unit.
It is possible to select and mount an optimal strobe device for the digital camera disclosed in Reference 2. However, it requires preparation of different strobe devices with different properties in advance, resulting in an additional work for a user to change one strobe device to another one and increasing costs.